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We all know C. S. Lewis as the great thinker, apologist, and the creative genius behind such beloved works as Mere Christianity and the Chronicles of Narnia—including The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, a feature film coming to theaters on December 9. But Douglas Gresham, stepson to the famous author, knows Lewis much better than that, calling him "the finest man and the best Christian I've ever known."

Douglas Gresham

Gresham was born in New York City in 1945. His parents divorced when Douglas was young, and his mother, Joy, later struck up a pen-pal friendship with Lewis. The friendship deepened, and Joy and her sons, Douglas and David, moved to England in 1953. Three years later, Joy and Jack—as Lewis was known to his friends—were married, and Lewis ultimately adopted the boys. But it wasn't long before Joy was diagnosed with cancer, and in 1961, just five years into their marriage, Joy died. Douglas was 15.

Today, Gresham, who turns 60 in November, is a busy man. He's serving as a producer/consultant on the new Narnia movie, and he's just written a new book, Jack's Life (Broadman & Holman), about his stepfather. In addition to his duties promoting the movie and his book, Gresham is in high demand for interviews and speaking engagements. He recently spent part of an afternoon with Christianity Today Movies, where we had a wide-ranging interview about his life with Lewis and his insight into the movie.

We had such a rich and lengthy conversation with Gresham that we've split it into two parts. Today, part one, focuses on Gresham's relationship with Lewis, and tomorrow, part two, will focus on the new movie.

It's been a busy time for you these last few months, promoting the film and your new book. Just how wild of a ride has it been?

Douglas Gresham: It started five years ago when we started negotiating to make this movie, and of course everything starts to accelerate toward release date, getting more and more frantic. Now we're simply weeks away from releasing the movie, and still working frantically to get everything finished, get everything polished, have everything perfect. But right now, I'm feeling a little bit like a yo-yo on a short string. I'm bouncing backwards and forwards all over the place. So, yeah, it is a wild ride.

Is that a good thing?

Gresham: It's a great thing. I thrive on it. The whole experience of making this movie, working with the team, it's been wonderful. And of course it's the realization of a lifelong dream, an ambition I've had since I was a child. My kids tell me that they remember me talking, dreaming, scheming and thinking about making this movie all their lives, since as early as they can remember. So the more I put into it, the happier I'll be.

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Let's talk about your new book. You've noted that many of the biographies about Lewis have been about Jack the thinker and not Jack the man. Does that mean you're irritated with those old bios?

Gresham: No, I'm not exactly irritated with them. There is a place for an analytical, critical biography of C. S. Lewis. But most of them are written by people who never met him, never knew him. And quite frankly, a lot of what they say is just nonsense. I don't think we need 30 critical and analytical biographies of C. S. Lewis and his works. So I decided that if I wanted to actually buy a book about somebody, I would want to know their life story. I would want to know who they were and what happened to them. So if nobody else was going to write it, I thought I'd better write it myself.

What were you trying to accomplish with Jack's Life?

Gresham: What I've tried to do is to start the book at a relatively young reading age and build it through the course of the book until at the end, people are reading at a much higher reading age. I hope the book appeals not only to children or young people, but to adults of all ages. If you want to know about C. S. Lewis's life, why he was called Jack, what happened to him in his life, what kind of man he was, this is the book. If you want to indulge in a critical, analytical analysis of C. S. Lewis the scholar, C. S. Lewis the theologian, or C. S. Lewis the writer, don't come to me because I won't give it to you.

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Related Elsewhere:

Narnia Comes to Life	Printer view
Douglas Gresham has dreamed of seeing Aslan on the big screen since he was a little boy. Now that his dream is about to become reality, C. S. Lewis's stepson talks about the new movie, and his role in it. (Part 2)